


Fixing the Broken

by Zetal (Rodinia)



Series: SPN Song Challenge Fics [1]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-03
Updated: 2017-01-03
Packaged: 2018-09-14 09:53:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,039
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9175081
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rodinia/pseuds/Zetal
Summary: Lucifer was gone, destroyed by Amara.  He got one final screw you in to Sam, though: despite having been together for years, he and Cas are no longer comfortable around each other because of Lucifer.  They both figure they need time, so Cas takes off to hunt with Claire while Sam stays at the Bunker with Dean.Sam's starting to really miss Cas when he finds a case in eastern Pennsylvania, while Cas happens to be in New York.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Written for SPN Song Creation Challenge. This round's theme: music of the world.
> 
> My prompt was German music. At first I was going to do a post-Apocalyptic 99 Red Balloons AU, but then this idea hit and I couldn't get rid of it.

When Sam first saw the news reports, he rolled his eyes at the bad joke. Old, too. Come on, Beethoven wasn’t even buried in Pennsylvania! As the reports continued, though, he started to wonder. Some of them sounded credible.

Cabin fever was setting in, too. Sam gathered up his courage. “I might have a case.”

Dean stopped playing with the sword and set it on the table. “Awesome. We need one before I accidentally break something cursed. Tell me about it.”

“Okay. Fair warning: you’re not going to believe me right away, but we might want to check it out anyway.” Dean nodded. “So get this. In Kutztown, Pennsylvania, there have been reports of strange sounds coming from the cemetery. Music playing. It took a couple days before someone identified it. It’s Beethoven’s music – but it’s being played backwards.”

Dean rolled his eyes and glared at Sam. “Seriously? He’s decomposing. I get it. Quit being ridiculous and tell me about the case.”

“That… is the case. Here.” Sam turned his laptop to let Dean look through the articles he’d found. “Reports from several places around, including both Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. People driving out to hear for themselves either because they want to be part of a ghost story or because they’re skeptics, and they all report hearing the same thing.”

Dean started clicking through, but he was still skeptical. “Because the people who don’t hear it don’t say anything. Any of those guys find anything indicating that this is actually a supernatural thing and not some prankster with an iPod and too much time and too little to do?”

“No, but I don’t think any of them actually knew how to look for ghosts or demons. And no one’s found evidence of an iPod or anything like that, which they would know how to look for, so there’s that.” Sam leaned forward in his chair. “It’s probably some kid with an iPod, you’re right. But even so, isn’t it worth going to check out? It’ll get us on the road for a while. And if I’m starting to get restless, you’ve gotta be going crazy.”

“Good point.” Dean turned the computer back to Sam and got up to leave. He turned back suddenly. “Where’s Cas this week?”

Sam shrugged. “He and Claire are checking out a werewolf sighting in Ithaca. Why?”

“New York. As in right by Pennsylvania?”

“Which has nothing to do with this. If we go I’m gonna let him know we’ll be out that way, see if we can meet up in Scranton or something, but I wasn’t looking for cases out there just to see Cas!”

Dean came back and sat on the table. “Sure you weren’t. Come on, Sam. What the hell’s going on between you two? You haven’t seen each other since I nearly blew up the sun. It’s been almost three months. You didn’t break up, did you?”

“No, of course not. Exactly.” Sam sighed. “Even from oblivion Lucifer’s found a way to get in one last screw you. When he was possessing Cas, he used my form to torture him.”

“Hang on.” Dean frowned. “Crowley said that Cas was just chilling watching TV in our kitchen when he went in.”

“Cas said that Lucifer kind of blew hot and cold on whether he was actually torturing him or not. It was worst when Cas took his body back to save my life.” One of Sam’s hands went to rub his chest. The cold haunted him. “And ever since that happened, when I have Lucifer nightmares, it’s about fifty-fifty whether I see Nick like I did in the Cage or during my hallucinations or Cas.”

“So? You and Cas are smart enough, you know the difference.”

“Yeah, but it’s gonna take some time to work through that. It’s not like it’s unusual for Cas and I to barely see each other for weeks. I’d only just started to wonder why he was avoiding me after the trip to the cage when we found out about Lucifer.”

“So? Wouldn’t it be better for the two of you to be around each other?”

Sam shook his head. “We Skype and Facetime as often as we can. It’s helping, which is why I think meeting up might be a good idea. I miss my angel.”

“Well. Let’s go check out the decomposing composer, then.”

 

Cas agreed to the meetup enthusiastically. He and Claire had just found and slain the werewolf, so they agreed to come to Kutztown. “I always liked Beethoven’s music. Very powerful. We can probably get there in time to go tonight, and report our experience to you when you arrive tomorrow.”

“You paid attention to human music?”

“Of course. His Ode to Joy is practically a hymn. See you soon.”

When they met up, Claire told them all about the experience. They’d gotten there shortly before midnight, which is when reports said the music would start. Cas heard it first – angel senses – precisely at midnight. Claire didn’t recognize any of the songs, but she knew it was Beethoven. “You know. The loud angry DAH-Dah-Dah-DAAAAAAAAH, DAH-Dah-Dah-DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH.”

Cas rolled his eyes. “The Fifth Symphony.”

Claire grinned. “The tinkly de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-dooooo.”

“Für Elise,” Castiel clarified.

“Sorry I’m not a classical music nerd like you.” Claire stuck her tongue out at Cas. “We were out there four hours before Cas couldn’t hear any more.”

“It started very faintly, ended very faintly, but for most of the time it was loud enough that anyone should be able to hear it. Unless, like Beethoven, they were deaf. I tried to locate it, but it seemed to be coming from all directions.” Castiel looked over at Dean. “No sulfur, but there was a drop in temperature right around midnight and a rise in temperature around four a.m. It could just be the daily weather cycle, but since the sun didn’t come up for quite some time after, I don’t think so.”

“So we’re thinking ghost? I’m still thinking kid with iPod, but the cold sounds weird.” Dean looked over to Sam. “What kind of ghost haunts a cemetery by playing creepy music?”

Sam shrugged. “I don’t know. Why don’t you go talk to people, and I’ll look for recent deaths in the area, see if we can come up with some kind of theory?”

Claire groaned. “Are you gonna make me come with you, Sam?”

“Nah, you’re plenty old enough to be a reporter. If you’d rather talk to people than go take a nap, that is.” Dean winked at Cas. “Besides, I don’t trust Cas with interviews ever since the time he decided the most productive use of his time was interviewing a freakin’ cat.”

Claire giggled. “A cat? Really, Cas?”

“He knew something about what was going on.” Castiel stepped over to stand beside Sam. “If Claire’s going with Dean, then I should go with you and help you research.”

“Yeah, that’d be nice. Dean, I’ll call you if Cas and I find something…”

“Oh god, please don’t.”

“Dean!” Sam’s eyes nearly bugged out. “We’re working, here! I’m not you.”

“Duh. I wouldn’t even be bothering with pretending to work on the case and you know it. C’mon, Claire. Let’s get out of here before you get any more traumatized.” Claire had been looking a little green, but it cleared up as she followed Dean to the Impala.

Castiel watched them go. “You didn’t mean anything like that, did you?”

“No. I meant research. Figure out this case. I miss you, but I’m pretty sure that I’m not ready to jump right back in.”

Castiel’s shoulders relaxed and he reached out to take Sam’s hand. “Good. I’m much better, but not enough.”

 

When they met up for dinner, both teams had come to the same conclusion. It wasn’t necessarily a ghost, but a haunted object. Carl Schmidt had been buried a month earlier with his beloved viola, an instrument he’d always bragged had once belonged to Beethoven. He could never prove it, so he never sent it to a museum.

“So Beethoven’s viola is decomposing. Do we… do something about it?” Dean asked around his burger. “It’s not really hurting anything, is it?”

“Kutztown could even use it as a tourist attraction, until the viola is rotted away,” Claire suggested. She popped a couple of fries into her mouth. “It’s not hurting anyone.”

Sam stabbed a piece of chicken. “Yet, but who knows how this will escalate? If the viola feels threatened, it might start lashing out at tourists.”

“How much more threatened can it get?” Dean asked.

Sam shrugged. “Right now, it’s probably still in pretty decent condition, but as rot starts to set in…”

Dean sighed. “Yeah, you’re probably right. So we go tonight and hope for no tourists.”

“If the two of you can dig, Claire and I can watch out for tourists. Intercept them before they spot you,” Castiel offered. “I see no need to destroy the viola. It should be safe enough in the Bunker, or we could donate it to a museum and let them try to trace authenticity.”

“Yeah, that’s fair.” Sam laughed at the disappointed look on Dean’s face. “We might want to salt and burn the corpse anyway, Dean. Carl probably won’t be happy with someone stealing something so precious to him he wanted to be buried with it.” Dean’s face lit up.

 

Sam held the viola reverently. It had clearly seen better days, but he could probably find someone to restore it. It was beautiful. There hadn’t been a bow or a case, but Sam could find those. Along with whatever else he needed. Dean kept looking at him funny on the way back to the motel. “You okay there, Sammy?”

“I’m fine. It’s just… look at this thing! Isn’t it beautiful?” Sam stroked the neck of the viola.

Claire leaned forward, one eyebrow raised. “Does Cas need to be jealous?”

“No.” Sam smiled at the viola. “Speaking of, Cas. Where are you going from here?”

Cas hesitated, until Claire nudged him. “I was thinking I’d take Claire back to Sioux Falls and then come home, if you’d be comfortable with that.”

“Sam, don’t do it.”

The other three turned to stare at Dean. “You didn’t even understand why he left!”

Dean shot a confused look at Sam. “What?”

“If he wants to come home and I want him to come home, why shouldn’t he come home?”

“He should come home!”

“So…” Sam prompted.

“So don’t turn around and start making out with him over the seat. I’m trying to drive, here.”

 

Dean was giving Sam hell for it, but Sam had taken the viola to an antique expert in Lawrence. The wood was still in good shape, so once the viola was restringed, it was good to go. Sam stopped at a music store to get the rest of what he’d need.

When he got home, Cas’s car was in its spot in the garage. Sam smiled and hurried inside, carrying the viola in its new case. He found Cas and Dean setting up a TV in Cas’s room. “Hey! Welcome home!”

“Sam! Good, you’re here, you can help get this stupid thing in place. We need your moose arms.”

“Moose don’t have arms,” Castiel said.

Sam carefully set the viola down and went to take Cas’s side of the TV. “Why are you hanging it so high that Cas can’t reach in the first place?”

“Just shut up and help.” Dean and Sam got the TV situated on its supports while Cas made sure it was level. “Okay. I’m out of here. Want me to put that somewhere safe, Sam?”

“No, I’ll take care of it. Thanks though.”

Dean took off, and Sam smiled over at Cas. “I’m glad you came home.”

“You’re not mad that I’m setting myself up to actually use my room, are you?”

“No. Don’t get me wrong, I want to get back to the point where you’re in my room every night, but we took things slow the first time around, we can take things slow again. Can I hug you?” Castiel held out his arms, and Sam wrapped him up in a hug. “I’ve missed you. Glad you’re back.”

**Author's Note:**

> Comments make my computer play Ode to Joy!


End file.
